Quote:
Originally Posted by Pappy
SMOKED TURKEY DID A FLIP-FLOP
Tried to smoke a whole 10 pound turkey. It turned out bad. I used the brine that is in the video. It sat in the brine for 2 days. Maybe that was too long? Rinsed the brine, refrigerated for 12 hours uncovered, stuffed with apples and onions, added some butter and rub before it placed it in a 325 degree UDS. Basted it with butter 3 times. It only took 2 hours for the breast to reach 160 degrees. The thighs were at 175 degrees. I was surprised how fast it cooked. It looked good, tasted bad. Turned out to be the 2nd worst turkey I have ever eaten. Worst one was the one I made and couple of months ago with no brine. It tasted rubbery or under cooked. 3 out of 4 people did not like it. I gave it all to the 1 person that liked it.
No more turkey’s for me. I’m going to have to stick with pork butts and ribs.
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Smoked turkey is great and is one of my favorite things to smoke.
I put in bold the things in your process that I would do differently.
- 2 days of brine is not brining your turkey, it is curing your turkey. 24 hours is plenty. 12 hours will work.
- I use 1 cup of salt (kosher) to 1 gallon of water
- Refrigerating your turkey for an additional 12 hours AFTER it is brined is unnecessary.
- You mentioned you added butter & rub. Where did you add it? on top of the skin won't do you any good. butter and/or rub should be applied beneath the skin.
- 325 degrees is quite a bit lower than I smoke a turkey. I like it to be in the 350-375 neighborhood. Also I cook mine indirectly (in a UDS this would mean a baffle/heat sink between meat & fire)
The reason it cooked so quickly was the 60 hours it was brined (48 in brine + 12 sitting in fridge with brine residue still in turkey). In comparison, the last Turkey I brined for a total of 16 hours.
The low temp and the extreme brine time contributed to your rubbery texture
Here are some resources:
http://sirporkalot.com/?s=brine